Lineup set for Kent Spotlight Series fall, winter concerts

The city of Kent has released its Spotlight Series schedule for fall and winter.

Tickets are available at the door or online at https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?ticketing=kent.

Performance locations are the Kent-Meridian High School Performing Arts Center, 10020 SE 256th St., in Kent or the Kentwood High School Performing Arts Center, 25800 164th Ave. SE in Covington.

• Vienna Boys Choir

7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 17

Kentwood Performing Arts Center

Tickets: $35 general, $32 senior, $20 youth

The Vienna Boys Choir is one of the most famous and oldest choirs in the world. Boys have been singing at Vienna’s Imperial Chapel at least since 1296. Until 1918, the boys sang exclusively for the court and attracted musicians like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Anton Bruckner. Joseph Haydn, Michael Haydn, and Franz Schubert were themselves choirboys.

In 1924, the Choir was reestablished as a private, nonprofit organization. Since that time, 2,750 choristers have sung over 1,000 tours in 100 countries. Today, the Vienna Boys Choir maintains its own campus, with a primary school, a middle school, and a senior high school program. The middle school is attended by 100 boy choristers between the ages of 9 and 14 who are divided into four choirs. Each group spends 10 weeks of the school year on tour. Between them, the choirs give around 300 concerts each year, attended by almost half a million spectators around the world.

• Magical Strings 37th Annual Celtic Yuletide Concert

3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 3

Kent-Meridian Performing Arts Center

Tickets: $28 general, $26 senior, $18 youth

The Boulding Family’s musical celebration of the holiday season is a treasured tradition in Kent. Once again, Pam and Philip Boulding are joined by their children, grandchildren, and guests for an afternoon of enchanting Yuletide music. The Bouldings perform on Celtic harps, hammered dulcimers, whistles, strings, percussion, and harp-like instruments from around the world. Guests add Irish step dancing, drumming, and storytelling for a festive and memorable performance.

• The Queen’s Cartoonists “Holiday Hurrah Yule Love it!”

7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 14

Kent-Meridian Performing Arts Center

Tickets: $30 general, $28 senior, $20 youth

Sponsored by Curran Law Firm

The Queen’s Cartoonists perform music from cartoons. Pulling from over 100 years of animation, TQC’s performances are perfectly synchronized to the films projected on stage. The band matches the energy of the cartoons, leading the audience through a world of virtuosic musicianship, multi-instrumental mayhem, and comedy.

Projections of animated films dazzle the audience, while the band re-creates original soundtracks note-for-note, or writes their own fresh compositions to modern pieces, all the while breathing new life into two uniquely American forms of art: jazz and animation. Tying everything together is the TQC brand of comedy – anecdotes about the cartoons and their composers, stream-of-consciousness humor, and elements of a musical circus.

Watch your favorite classic cartoon characters interact with the musicians on stage and expect the unexpected from the Golden Age of Animation, cult cartoon classics, and modern animated films.

Since their inception in 2015, the band, hailing from as far away as Australia, Bulgaria, and Washington, D.C., now all reside in Queens, New York, and are a creative part of the New York jazz scene.

• Yesterday and Today: The Interactive Beatles

7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 26

Kent-Meridian Performing Arts Center

Tickets: $32 general, $30 senior $20 youth

Sponsored by Pete and Pat Curran through the Kent Community Foundation

This amazing band, anchored by brothers Billy, Matthew, and Ryan McGuigan perform as themselves and leave the song choices completely in the hands of the audience. Audience members fill out request cards prior to the show, offering only three pieces of information: Their name, their favorite Beatles song, and the reason why they chose that song.

The cards are collected and minutes before the show beings, a set list is created based upon the songs chosen by that particular audience. As an added treat, the audience members’ reasons for choosing the songs make up the narrative of the evening.

Every show is different, every show is interactive, and every show proves that The Beatles’ music truly is the soundtrack to our lives.

• International Guitar Night

7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2

Kent-Meridian Performing Arts Center

Tickets: $30 general, $28 senior, $20 youth

Sponsored by Judy Woods, co-sponsored by the Haffner Family

International Guitar Night is North America’s premier traveling guitar festival, bringing together the world’s foremost acoustic guitarists to perform their latest original compositions and exchange musical ideas in a public concert setting. Each tour, IGN founder Brian Gore assembles a new cast of guitar luminaries come together for a special evening of solos, duets and quartets that highlight the virtuosity and diversity within the world of acoustic guitar. For International Guitar Night’s 24th year, featured guitarists include three IGN favorites and an exciting newcomer.

Luca Stricagnoli (Italy), the amazing acoustic rock interpreter, will be returning for the 4th time. Thu Le (Vietnam), whose nylon string artistry stretches from classical to contemporary, was on the IGN 2022 tour. Marco Pereira (Brazil), the master composer and performer, first toured with IGN in its early days and returns for his final go-round in 2024. Minnie Marks (Australia), the irrepressible blues slide guitarist and singer, not only is new to IGN but will be making her North American debut.

• Live From Laurel Canyon presents “James & Joni: Their Stories, Their Songs”

7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 23

Kent-Meridian Performing Arts Center

Tickets: $30 general, $28 senior, $20 youth

Sponsored by Pete and Pat Curran through the Kent Community Foundation

Live From Laurel Canyon presented their hit show “Songs and Stories of American Folk Rock” during the 2021-2022 Spotlight Series season. Now they are back with “James & Joni: Their Stories, Their Songs.” The show chronicles the careers of two songwriting icons: James Taylor and Joni Mitchell presented in the style of Live from Laurel Canyon with narrated stories about their lives and the songs you know and love. The evening features a selection of songs from their vast careers; from the early days to later hits.

• Trailblazing Women of Country: From Patsy to Loretta to Dolly

7:30 p.m. Friday, March 1

Kent-Meridian Performing Arts Center

Tickets: $35 general, $32 senior, $20 youth

Sponsored by The Pete and Pat Curran Family

Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, and Dolly Parton revolutionized country music and blazed a trail for future generations of female artists. With their chart-topping hits and record-breaking sales, they wove threads of contemporary womanhood throughout the tapestry of country music, resulting in unprecedented commercial success and earning each a place in the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Trailblazing Women of Country will entertain and inspire, featuring soloists Miko Marks, CMT’s 2022 “Next Woman of Country,” and Nashville-based singer Kristina Train, supported by a five-member, all-female band.